Diabetes ECHO

Improving Diabetes Management Services

TRAINING AND SUPPORT FOR DIABETES MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS

Diabetes ECHO is designed to provide a consultative link between specialists and community clinicians throughout the state via videoconferencing technology. Its goal is to provide consultations through case review of patients living with diabetes and to train primary care clinicians to become experts in the care and management of diabetes and diabetes-related conditions so that patients can receive timely treatment in their own communities. The ECHO model develops knowledge and capacity amongst community-based providers through the use of technology to leverage scarce resources, sharing of best practices to reduce disparities, using case-based learning to master complexity and monitoring outcomes using a web-based database.

ECHO functions on a “hub and spoke” model with an interdisciplinary, team-based approach. For this Diabetes ECHO, Well-Ahead Louisiana will serve as the “hub” of specialists, including an Endocrinologist, an Internal Medicine Physician, a Certified Diabetes Educator, a Nurse Practitioner, and a Cardiologist and a Podiatrist (rotating).

The scheduled ECHO clinics function like virtual grand rounds via real-time, interactive videoconferencing, using the platform Zoom. During ECHO sessions, providers present de-identified patient cases to expert teams who mentor the learners to manage patients with complex conditions.

Sessions will be held every other week for one hour. Physicians, nurses, and pharmacists are able to obtain CEU credits for participation in Diabetes ECHO sessions. Once you have registered, a Diabetes ECHO staff member will reach out to you with more information.

Applications for the 2022 Diabetes ECHO Cohort closed on January 7, 2022.


Benefits of Participation

Individual Participants

  • Participation in supportive Community of Practice
  • Best practice sharing with specialists and peers
  • FREE professional continuing education credits (physicians, nurses, and pharmacists)
  • Education on variety of diabetes-related topics
  • Expansion of diabetes treatment capacity
  • Enhanced clinical skills and competencies to practice at the top of license
  • Increased confidence in treating patients with diabetes

Participating Clinics

  • Increased provider satisfaction
  • Increased provider productivity
  • Increased provider motivation and resilience to practice in rural communities

Patients of Participating Clinics

  • Improved outcomes
  • Improved quality and safety
  • Improved condition-specific measures (e.g., HgA1c, blood pressures)
  • Decreased mortality
  • Mitigated future interventions
  • Reduced treatment-related complications
  • Ability to stay in local community and receive treatment from local/primary healthcare providers

What to Expect

Structure of an ECHO Session:

  • Introductions
  • Case Presentation
  • Recommendations
  • Didactic Presentation

Participating clinics must:

  • Allow and ensure at least one participant at clinic attends and actively engages in at least 50% of sessions (sessions will be held every two weeks beginning January 27, 2022)
  • Allow and ensure participating provider(s) submit and present at least 1 patient case during the calendar year

Participating providers must:

  • Complete two surveys to assess efficacy of the program: one pre-survey prior to the first session and one post-survey after the last session
  • Providers who wish to receive CEUs will need to enter attendance and complete the post-session survey within 48 hours of the session to obtain credit for each session.

Read the Diabetes ECHO Participant Guide to learn more.

Submit a case presentation!

Learn More

Meet the Hub Team

  • Christine Castille, NP

    Christine Castille is a Family Nurse Practitioner, board certified in Advanced Diabetes Management. Christine is passionate about partnering with healthcare providers, staff, and patients to reach quality healthcare goals. As a nurse practitioner and healthcare consultant, her career has included a focus on multiple aspects of diabetes and related conditions such as hypertension, renal disease, and obesity as well as working for and collaborating with payors and ACOs. Recently Christine’s passion for supporting healthcare providers, empowering patients and researching integral aspects of patient adherence has led her to work with VMS biomarketing.

  • Anthony Decuir, Jr., DPM

    Decuir was born and raised in New Orleans and attended Brother Martin High School and Xavier University of Louisiana. He attended Podiatry School in Chicago at the Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine and received his Podiatric training at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. After practicing for one year in the New Orleans area, he moved to Baton Rouge, where he has practiced for the past eighteen years.

  • Satish Gadi, MD

    Dr. Satish Gadi is an interventional cardiologist who has been practicing in Baton Rouge since 2010. He did much of his training including residency, fellowship, etc. in New York and now works with the Cardiovascular Institute of the South which has been serving Southern Louisiana for 35 plus years. Dr. Gadi in addition to being a cardiologist, has a special interest in PAD–both diagnosis and management.

  • Raven Jackson, PharmD

    Raven Jackson has taught in several courses within the pharmacy curriculum including neurology therapeutics, interprofessional education, medication therapy management, point of care testing, professional practice and pharmacogenomics as well as an infectious disease point of care testing lab. As a component of her clinical position, Raven has also served as a preceptor for both advanced pharmacy practice experiences, introductory pharmacy practice experiences, and the ambulatory post graduate year 1 Pharmacy Residency program at West Jefferson Medical Center – The Family Doctor’s Clinic. She provided diabetes medication management and polypharmacy medication reconciliation services. She also provided med consults to the Surgical Center at West Jeff.

  • Dragana Lovre, MD

    Dr. Dragana Lovre is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine (Section of Endocrinology), where she also completed her Clinical Endocrinology Fellowship. Dr. Lovre is board certified in internal medicine and endocrinology. Her clinical and research interests focus on cardiovascular complications of diabetes with special interest in women’s health and obesity. She is involved in “Diabetes is Primary Program” by the American Diabetes Association, which delivers easily accessible continuing education to meet the needs of busy primary care providers, and also clinical trials in diabetes at Tulane University.

  • Vy Anh Mai, MD, MSc

    Dr. Vy Anh Mai received a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and her Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine in Kansas City, Missouri. She also obtained a Master of Science in Clinical Research Methods degree at Tulane University School of Medicine. Dr. Mai joined the Section of General Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics in 2019. Dr. Mai practices primary care at Tulane’s Uptown Multispecialty Clinic and actively sees patients of all ages. She has an interest in academic medicine and supervises residents in the Internal Medicine/Pediatrics clinic.

Diabetes ECHO Schedule

DateTopicPresenter
July 14, 2022Diabetic Peripheral NeuropathyVivian Fonseca, MD
Tulane University Chief of Endocrinology
July 28, 2022Obesity & Metabolic Surgery Benefits and Risks For The Treatment Of Type 2 DiabetesEmily Thevis, MBA, RDN, CSOWM, CDCES
Physician Liaison
Memorial Hermann Health System
August 11, 2022Insulin TherapiesRobert Galagan, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Tulane University School of Medicine
August 25, 2022Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)Sarah Wilson, MD
Tulane University School of Medicine
September 8, 2022CGMs and Insulin PumpsTBD
September 22, 2022Cultural Competency, Health Literacy and Numeracy in Diabetes CareChristine Castille, FNP-C, BC-ADM, CDCES
FNP / CDE Hub Specialist
DateTopicPresenter
October 6, 2022Diabetes Self-Management EducationTBD
October 20, 2022Diabetes Care In The HospitalTBD
November 3, 2022Diabetes In PregnancyTBD
November 17, 2022Helping Patients Stay on
Track During the Holidays		Christine Castille, FNP-C, BC-ADM,
CDCES
FNP / CDE Hub Specialist
December 1, 2022Diabetes and End-of-Life
Care		TBD
December 15, 2022The National Diabetes
Prevention Program		TBD
December 29, 2022Diabetes Updates/End of
the Year Review		TBD

2022 Diabetes ECHO Sessions

2021 Diabetes ECHO Session Archives


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Accreditation

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by the Louisiana Department of Health Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention and Healthcare Access and Project ECHO. Project ECHO® is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

AMA Designation Statement: Project ECHO® designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM.  Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

ACPE Designation Statement: This activity will provide pharmacists up to 1.0 contact hour. UAN JA4008231-9999-22-078-L01-P has been assigned to this Knowledge based program for Pharmacists. CE credit information, based on verification of live attendance and completion of the program evaluation, will be provided to NABP within 60 days after the activity completion.

AAPA Credit Designation Statement: Project ECHO has been authorized by the American Academy of PAs (AAPA) to award AAPA Category 1 CME credit for activities planned in accordance with AAPA CME Criteria. This activity is designated for 1.0 AAPA Category 1 CME credits. PAs should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.

ANCC Disclosure Statement: Project ECHO® designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 ANCC contact hour.  Nursing contact hours will be awarded for successful completion of program components based upon documented attendance and completion of evaluation.

Disclosure Statement: Project ECHO®, in compliance with the ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, requires that anyone who is in a position to control the content of an educational activity disclose all relevant financial relationships they have had within the last 24 months with an ineligible company.

None of the following planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients: Taunya Williams, MHA; Anthony Decuir, Jr., DPM; Christine Castille, FNP-C, BC-ADM, CDE; Raven Jackson, PharmD; and Vy Anh Mai, MD, MS.

The following planners and presenters listed below have disclosed that they have a relevant financial relationship with an ineligible company: Dragana Lovre, MD (Researcher, Novo Nordisk); Satish Gadi, MD (Stockholder, Venclose, Inc.); and Satish Gadi, MD (Speaker, AstraZeneca).

All of the relevant financial relationships listed for these individuals have been mitigated.